The Assessment Checklist

Spring has finally arrived here; though I should point out that it's still dipping below 0 Celsius at night. With the time change, it's light out at 8pm and after hubby gets back form this trip, I am looking forward to starting my evening runs again.

Yesterday, I met up with a couple friends and their kids and we played in the residential garden at one's townhouse. It's a concept that's quite common here in the UK, where a garden (read: fenced in green space, not necessarily with flowers) can be accessed only by the residents who live around it. My friend has a key that she needs to use to get in and out, so it's safe to let the kids run around without worrying about them getting out, and there are no dogs allowed, so no worries about dog crap in the grass where they play. There are plenty of benches, a small treed area for them to poke about and lots of grass with some hills to slide and roll down.

We took to plopping ourself on the grass and sunning ourselves and pretending it was summer while we chatted and kept an eye on the kids, who were mostly content to kick a ball around or play with the pails and shovels in the gravel walking paths.

Miss K had her hearing test yesterday. It consisted of her sitting at a small table with my behind and one of the technicians in front of her. There was a small wooden tray with holes in it and little wooden people that sat in the holes. On either side were large speakers. The game was that when she heard a tone play, she was to put a person in a hole. they played loud tones, quiet tones, middle, high and low pitched tones. They played them from different speakers too.

She passed with flying colours.

Which is a relief, but means that her issues with sound discrimination and attention are likely related to her likely autism.

But one step done and they told me it was good I got it done because Child Development would have wanted her to have it done anyway.

Yay for being ahead of the game for once!

My girl's 'thoughtful' pose...